


All These Broken Pieces

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Category: What We Do in the Shadows (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sexual Content, Vampire Sex, post season two
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:34:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28436958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: It's tempting for Guillermo to just go back to the Staten Island house and fall back into his old life, but too much has changed since the events at the theatre and he is no longer the same person he was.
Relationships: Guillermo de la Cruz/Nandor the Relentless
Comments: 47
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

Guillermo couldn’t quite begin to explain the way that he felt standing amongst the corpses of the vampires he had just slain; powerful he supposed was a good place to start, adrenaline still pumping through is veins, heart thudding against his chest, the rotting stench of death tinged with the copper of the drying blood soaking his hair and skin gave him a sick sense of pride. Deep down even some primal part of himself passed down from generation to generation found a sense of pride in seeing his former roommates staring up at him with looks of confused fear, they looked at him as if he were a stranger to them, not the man they had known since he was a teenager. 

This spell was broken though the second that Nandor broke the renewed silence with complaints about having to do their own laundry. Something deflated within himself then slamming him back into his current reality. He wasn’t a slayer in the battlefield fighting evil for a holy mission, no he was a thirty-one-year-old ex-familiar who just outed himself to his vampire roommates that he was in fact a slayer. Vampires he had just rescued from a rather violent demise and the only thanks he could receive from his former master was a whining complaint. He tensed at the complaint, jaw set and stare pointed at Nandor who still somehow had the balls to glare right back at him as if they were home fighting over something ridiculous and minute. 

Nadja turned her head to glare at her roommate, “shut up you bloody idiot, do you want him to kill us too?” She angrily whispered at him, a hiss following her words.

Nandor glanced towards her and gave a short shrug of his shoulders as if he could care less, more so as if he couldn’t fathom the very idea of Guillermo hurting them, and yet it had only been a month ago since Guillermo had had the sharpened ends of a broken broom pressed against his chest. It had been purely accidental, but it had happened and the look of pure fear in those dark eyes he’d grown to love over the years still caused a sickening lump to form in his throat. 

Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of movement, he reached into the inside pocket of his trench coat and retrieved a silver dagger pulling it out and turning quickly to face a presumed enemy only to see camera two climbing to his feet, shaky and wide eyed as he stared up at Guillermo.

“Sorry,” he muttered as he lowered the blade to his side feeling guilt well within himself at the look of momentary fear that rushed across Jason’s face.

As he took in Jason’s appearance, he could tell he was shaken up, a bit bruised and scratched up from the chaos that had ensued not too long ago, yet he forced a smile to try and hide that fear. From day one the documentary crew had been doing that, biting back judgement and doing their best to show how absolutely terrified they were of the various situations that came with the territory of making a documentary about vampires in the modern world. He still remembered the weeks of tense silence that had followed after their sound guy had been murdered by the Baron, the slight tension between the crew and the household, a sort of mild distrust and realization. He could see that again now, except now that look was aimed towards him and he wasn’t sure what to do with it. He wished he could shrug off the coat and the knuckle rings and swear off hunting forever, declare himself just Guillermo De La Cruz and not Guillermo VanHelsing, wipe away hundreds of years of vampire hunting ancestry, but he couldn’t do that. This was who and what he was and each day that passed he swore that he was losing more of his former self and it was scaring the shit out of him.

“Are you okay?” 

Jason gave himself a quick look over, he checked his camera, its lens had been severely cracked in the midst of the fight. “I’m fine, camera might not be though, I think I got all of that though.” He said gesturing with his free hand to the carnage that surrounded them.

“Cool, I think you should probably get out of here though just in case more come, I don’t want you getting hurt.” He gently warned nodding towards the exit door.

“Probably a good idea, will you be okay?”

He didn’t know. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” He lied, he managed to force a small smile just to set the other man at ease. He could still feel his vampires staring at him, quieter than he ever remembered them being in the time he’d known them. He almost missed the talking and the shouting matches.

Guillermo watched as Jason carefully stepped over bodies and severed limbs, he rushed to the exit door seeming grateful to get the Hell out of this place alive. It wasn’t until the door clicked shut behind himt hat Guillermo turned his attention back to the stage where four vampires still sat tied to chairs with silver laced ropes, their expressions varying from wary to annoyed. He let out a heavy sigh as he made his way down the aisle of corpses and towards the stage where they waited like caged animals. 

He didn’t feel good seeing them scared of him, maybe a little. There was something about seeing Laszlo scared of him that was pleasing, for a moment he was going to allow himself to enjoy that silence, and the knowledge that they no longer saw him as some weak human they could bully and treat like garbage. He wished he didn’t have to slay a hundred vampires or more to garner that respect from his former roommates. He was cautious as he approached them, his steps slow and deliberate, he felt as if he were approaching an injured feral cat wanting to convey the wanting to help. He wanted to tell them he didn’t want to hurt them, that he had no intentions of doing that, he just wanted to get them the Hell out of here before things got worse than they already had been, but all of those words died in his throat. He’d spent a good year lying about who he really was, what he was, he doubted they would trust him right now if he tried to say he wasn’t going to hurt them.

So silently he severed the ropes that bound Laszlo and Nadja to their chairs, he took several steps back and held the knife loosely at his side to quietly assure them he didn’t plan on attacking them, still the couple stared at the knife for a long moment before meeting his gaze. He could see the fear and wariness, the way that Nadja clung to Laszlo’s side, his arm around her slim waist.

“Thank you Giz-Gui…. Guillermo, we greatly appreciate you not killing us.” Laszlo managed out.

“It’s fine, you guys should probably get out of here and get back home just in case more come here tonight.”

“That is a very good idea,” Nadja agreed, she placed a hand against Laszlo’s chest gently pushing him towards the edge of the stage and away from Guillermo. “Thank you again.” The smile on her face as she glanced one last time back at Guillermo was shaky, the fear gleaming in her eyes was obvious and it hurt. He watched as the couple rushed towards the door excited to be away from the events of the night and more specifically away from Guillermo. 

There at least was a comfort in the fact that Colin Robinson seemed less than bothered by the situation, he’d narrowly escaped death for yet another day and he knew Guillermo well enough to know that he wouldn’t kill him or really know how to kill him if Guillermo were being completely honest. 

“So, you’re secretly a vampire hunter?” He asked as he rubbed at his wrists.

“No, I’m…I mean I am, but I’m not, I don’t mean to be.” 

Nandor scoffed and Colin smiled in response to the rambling response that Guillermo gave to his question, he remained sitting with no evident intention to run for his life like his friends had done a minute ago. Guillermo almost considered threatening to kill him just to make him leave.

“That sounds really complicated. You know I didn’t think there were even any hunters in Staten Island, at least not in the past hundred years. I guess it would be a tough profession to have, with the high chance of being killed and everything. Hey, Nandor, did you know about this?” He asked looking over at his roommate.

Guillermo couldn’t help but glance up at Nandor as well, he had his own curiosities about this. Nandor glared at Colin, lips pulled back in a snarl exposing his long sharp fangs in an instinctive attempt to threaten the other vampire, but it did nothing but encourage him. 

“I’m going to take that as a yes then. Wow so you knew that he’s been killing vampires and you didn’t do anything about it?”

“Colin I really think you should get out of here.” Guillermo interrupted, his palms were sweating and as the adrenaline subsided, he was left with a mounting anxious dread.

“I’m not too worried about the Council, after all you are technically the one that they should be after now.” 

“Still could you like just get the fuck out of here.”

“I don’t have a car and I can’t fly.”

He took a deep breath fighting back the urge to scream or to stab him. “Take an uber, I don’t care, just please get out of here.” 

Colin smirked, eyes flashing blue. He could feel the tension in the room, it vibrated in waves. “I prefer Lyft myself.”

“Okay then do that, just fuck off.” 

The vampire looked from Guillermo back towards Nandor, he chuckled when he noticed the intense focus on the elder vampire’s face as he stared up at Guillermo. Finally, he got up from his seat slowly stretching before slowly making his way towards the exit. Guillermo waited two minutes after the door shut just to be sure that he was gone before he approached Nandor. It wasn’t that he wanted to be alone with him, in fact it was literally the last thing that he wanted in the world, he would rather have the Council swoop in and rip him to shreds. It annoyed him that he couldn’t read Nandor’s expression, he could tell he was tense like a lion waiting to pounce on its prey. Once the ropes were cut and fell to the wooden floor with a thud the vampire rolled his shoulders and began rubbing at the raw skin of his wrists that would take days to fully heal after being in contact with silver for so long. 

Guillermo took a careful step back away from him, he put the knife away as a silent show that he wouldn’t stab him despite a growing urge to do so.

“You know it is very rude to cut me free last, I should have been first.” He whined, petulant as he glared up at him.

“You’re welcome for saving your life.”

A brief look of confusion passed over his face before he spoke again, “I did not thank you.”

“Yeah, I know you didn’t, no all you did was bitch about laundry, are you fucking kidding me?” He shouted at him, his voice echoed throughout the room, Nandor flinched.

“Well, what do you want from me?” He asked as he got to his feet towering over the other man, he took a step forward, Guillermo stayed planted to the spot glaring up at him, a challenge in his eyes, daring him. “You run off without even saying why you’re leaving, you just leave some cryptic note about being sorry, sorry for what? For being an asshole and just abandoning me for no reason.” 

“I didn’t abandon you, I had to leave.”

“Why, I did everything that you asked me to do for you, you stay for barely any time at all then just leave again. Then you come in here like some stupid human nearly getting killed just so you can be a hero, you could have died you know, and for what just to look cool?” 

“I left because I can barely control myself from hurting you guys and I wouldn’t have had to fucking come here and save you if you hadn’t fallen for the world’s most obvious trap.” 

Nandor stepped closer until they were nearly pressed together, his fangs exposed and eyes dark as if he wished he could intimidate somebody who had known him for eleven years, somebody who knew how sentimental and dorky he could really be beneath the tantrums and the long history of murders. Guillermo clenched and unclenched his fists to keep himself from reaching for a stake, the cold metal of his knuckle rings pressed uncomfortably into the palm of his hand grounding him to the present, reminding him to not kill this horribly frustrating man standing before him acting like the world’s most spoiled cat.

“A trap that we wouldn’t have fallen for if not for you. You killed the Baron, you said so over a year ago, and you killed all those other vampires too. If anything, you should have been the one getting his head chopped off.” Nandor countered with a malice that he hardly felt.

The words stung like a punch in the face, “you were the one who took the fall for me back then, nobody made you do that. Why risk your own life for me then, I’m just some stupid human, I haven’t done anything deserving of you sacrificing yourself.” 

It had always bothered him; he hadn’t wanted them to die for a crime he’d committed. It wasn’t as if Guillermo had wanted to be torn to shreds by a Council of hungry vampires, but he had been the one who had killed the Baron. A naïve part of him back then had thought that Nandor had lied to protect him out of a place of care, some warped and confusing sense of love perhaps, but as time wore on, he questioned that. He questioned if Nandor could even care about anybody, if the ability to care and to love had died the night a vampire attacked him over seven-hundred years ago. Was that what would happen to Guillermo if he were ever lucky or unlucky enough to be turned into a vampire, would he slowly lose his ability to love, to feel empathy for anything?

He was taken off guard when Nandor took his face in his hands pulling him ever closer, his skin was icy cold against his hot blood-stained flesh. Guillermo’s heart thudded against his chest, fear and confusion coursing through his veins as a vampire he’d known for so long stared down at him with dark nearly black eyes.

“Why do you think I would do such a stupid thing for you, I tried to protect you tonight too, but you had to come in and be stupid.” He muttered, a gentle tone to his voice, there was something desperate and searching in his eyes as he gazed down at Guillermo as if he were seeing him for the first time and trying to figure out what in the Hell he even was.

Years ago, he would have sold his soul for this very moment, to be touched by him, to feel the gentle stroke of a thumb against his cheek, to feel almost wanted. Now he was unsure if he wanted this, if it was too late for this, for them.

“Nandor-“

“Don’t, please don’t say anything.” He whispered leaning in closer.

Guillermo could feel cool breath against his face, he very nearly could feel his lips brush against his, and all he wanted in this moment was to be kissed, to be held pressed against his solid form for a lifetime. It didn’t matter that they were surrounded by bodies, that the Council could very well be on the way to kill him at this very moment, it was just the two of them, and he realized he still loved him more than he’d ever loved anybody in his life.

“Hey guys sorry to interrupt,”

As quickly as the moment began it ended, Nandor pulled away from him taking several steps back, gaze adverted almost as if he were ashamed of himself. Guillermo glared in the direction of the voice, frustrated and hurt as he saw Colin Robinson standing at the edge of the stage with his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants, a smile on his face as he watched them, Guillermo now realized he had been watching them for some time now.

“What is it, I thought that you went home.”

“It’s the darndest thing, I got outside, and my phone is completely dead.”

“You waited until right now to come in and tell me that.” Guillermo responded, eye twitching in annoyance.

Colin’s smile brightened, “I was going to tell you a few minutes ago, but the way that you two were going at it I just hated to interrupt something that delicious. I did notice though you’ve got a car outside, I was thinking we could all go back home together perhaps.”

Before Guillermo could even begin to protest that idea Nandor interrupted, “great idea.” 

He still wasn’t looking at him, his back was practically turned to Guillermo as he made his way towards Colin as if he couldn’t wait to get away from him and back home. 

“Neat, also I think that I should drive.”

“Why?”

“Well, you’re soaked in blood and you seem a bit shaky at the moment, besides it’ll give you a chance to relax and for you two to catch up or finish whatever it was that was happening before I interrupted. I know how much Nandor’s missed you since you left.”

Wordlessly Guillermo tossed his keys to the vampire, he was too preoccupied staring at Nandor to really care anymore. He nearly questioned if it was true that Nandor missed him, but with the way he was glaring at Colin Robinson it seemed quite clear that was true. 

The late night air outside of the theatre was colder than it had been when Guillermo had entered earlier that night, he pulled his jacket closed around himself shivering against the cold breeze of air. A new sort of tension filled the air as they made their way to the waiting car, Colin whistled to himself and Nandor was nearly walking beside him to keep up the distance between Guillermo and himself. He couldn’t help but replay the moment in the theatre, the feeling of his hands on his cheeks, his lips so close to his, and the gentle tone of his voice. He wouldn’t be so upset about the interruption if it hadn’t resulted in Nandor distancing himself from him, literally. If this were the first time this had ever happened then maybe it wouldn’t sting so badly, but for years now it had been like this. Every time it was the two of them Nandor could be normal, he could be gentle and kind and even treat him with a degree of respect, but the very second that anybody else came into the room it ended. It was as if he were ashamed of him, terrified at the aspect of the others catching him being kind to his familiar, kind to just a stupid human. Maybe this was the final sign for him to realize this wasn’t working out, he couldn’t handle going back to another month or year of this back and forth, he wanted more from his life, he wanted somebody who saw him and loved him.

When they arrived at the car Colin climbed into the driver’s seat, Guillermo climbed into the back expecting Nandor to take the front seat to further avoid him, but was surprised when he slid in beside him, still making a point of ignoring him. Guillermo turned away from him instead choosing to look out the window, he wasn’t going to beg for his attention if he wasn’t willing to give it. 

The silence of the car ended once Colin turned the radio on flipping through stations, he paused on several televangelists, a stock market report, and then finally ended up leaving it on a station that was playing the song Careless Whisper. Guillermo groaned and hit his head against the window almost wishing he’d been killed.

“Do you guys like this song? I figure it’s a good mood setter y’know, give you love birds something to listen to.”

“Colin Robinson please shut up.” Nandor complained.

“Sorry,” a moment passed before he started up again. “Hey Nandor, do you still have that note that Guillermo left? You should have seen it, the entire week that you were gone he was carrying around that scrap of paper just staring at it, saddest thing you’ve ever seen.”

Guillermo couldn’t help but turn to look at Nandor, the vampire was glaring at the back of Colin’s seat, he looked two seconds away from snapping Colin’s neck, car crash or not.

“Will you please stop talking?”

“What did the note say anyway, I tried asking him a couple of times, but he just hissed at me. Must have been something pretty juicy to make Nandor so depressed, poor guy barely left his room. Just moped around.”

Nandor kicked the back of Colin’s seat, the energy vampire laughed in response, if anything he seemed to get more joy out of the fact that he pushed Nandor to wanting to cause him bodily harm.

“It reminded me of the way Guillermo used to follow you around like a puppy back when he started working for you, remember you always acted like you had the biggest crush on Nandor.”

“Colin shut up; I swear I will actually stake you.” Guillermo warned.

“Fine, fine, I’ll let you guys work it out on your own. I’ve had my fill for the night anyway.” 

Guillermo leaned his head back against the seat closing his eyes for a moment, he could feel Nandor watching him, he didn’t have the energy left within himself after tonight to deal with this. He didn’t want to know if Nandor was angry with him, if he was sad, or sorry. He almost just didn’t care. Colin had been right when he said that the Council would now know he was their real target, he was sure that so long as his vampires avoided him then they wouldn’t be hunted by the Council any longer. He knew this meant he couldn’t stay with his mother any longer, he couldn’t even go back tonight to get his things, he supposed he could give Jeremy a call and ask to stay with him for a few days, or just the night so he could get washed up and have at least a couch to crash on until the morning. Then he could go back to his mom’s explain that he was staying with Jeremy until he could get a place of his own, he knew she would be heart broken by him leaving when he just got back, but he couldn’t risk her being harmed.

He startled when he felt something cold brush against his hand, he looked down to see Nandor’s fingers brushing against his hand, fingertips dancing across the cool silver of the crucifix on his knuckle rings, smoke swirled from his skin, but he didn’t seem to care about the pain. Guillermo glanced up at his face, Nandor’s focus was on his hands, his eyes were soft and sad. He wanted to shout at him, ask him what was wrong with him. He couldn’t understand the back and forth, how one minute he could insult him then in the next go to kiss him only to go back to avoidance and irritation. Now here they were again in the safety of the darkness in the back of a car, gentle painful caresses. Guillermo gently took hold of his wrist pushing his hand away from his own, the sleeve of his shirt rode up exposing the deep bloodied burns on Nandor’s skin, the sight of it made Guillermo’s heart hurt. 

If it weren’t for Colin listening to them, he would ask him about the note, about why he’d been depressed all week. If he had missed him so badly then why not search him out like he did before?

Guillermo sighed as he ran his index finger along the marks on Nandor’s skin knowing there were more on his chest and across his upper arms, burns that he wouldn’t get to see or caress in this way. He was surprised that Nandor was allowing him to do this right now, not pulling away as he typically did, always frightened or annoyed with him for initiating any sort of touch. Nandor watched him with careful eyes, something sad and fond in his gaze as he watched the younger man, something that came too close to being love. 

He had too much to think over for this right now, he wasn’t sure he could handle the idea of Nandor loving him, not when he had to worry about the Council and every vampire in the state wanting him dead. He released Nandor’s wrist and placed his own hands back onto his lap fidgeting with his rings, as he looked out the window, he could feel the vampire watching him as if he were waiting for him to say something to him or make some sort of move.

The ride back to what had once been his home felt like it took forever, in reality it was only an hour long drive, but once they pulled into the driveway Guillermo couldn’t help but sigh in relief. Relief was short lived as Colin turned to look at them, eyes flashing blue as he looked between the two of them taking in their frustration and desperation to get out of a situation that left them raw and confused.

“Guess you two want some alone time.” 

“It would be nice.” Nandor responded sounding already annoyed.

“Please, it’s been a really long night, just give us like five minutes, okay?”

“No problem, and hey thanks for saving us back there, you scared the Hell out of Laszlo and Nadja back there. I bet they’re still freaking out; I’ll be feeding on that for a good week or two.” Colin mused as he climbed out of the car.

Neither man spoke until Colin was safely inside the house and they were certain he wouldn’t be listening to their conversations any longer.

“I suppose we should go inside too, get you washed up, I can make up the Blue Room for you if you’d like, or you could sleep in my crypt perhaps.” Nandor offered awkwardly.

“You know that I can’t go back to how things were, right?”

“So, you don’t have to be my familiar any longer, I relieve you of your duty, but you can still stay. As a friend, you won’t even have to pay rent anymore.” 

Nandor reached for his hand again, Guillermo pulled away from him. He regretted the action when he saw the hurt on the vampire’s face as he placed his hand back onto his lap, wounded and rejected. 

“I mean that I can’t stay here anymore, Colin was right, the Council is going to know now that I was the one killing all of those vampires. If I stay then you guys will be killed by them, they’ll think that you’re protecting me.”

“I am though, I want to protect you, I refuse to let them kill you.” 

“No, I can’t….You’re not going to protect me, I’m going to leave, and try to sort this out.”

If he stayed then he wouldn’t be able to make plans, he wouldn’t be able to think through what he needed and what he wanted. Perhaps he was destined to be a vampire slayer, maybe he had never been meant to be a vampire at all.

“When will you come back?”

“I don’t know, I don’t think I can, not for a while anyway.” He doubted Nadja and Laszlo would want him back inside the house ever again, he doubted it was safe for him to be here even now, and if he came back then he was in danger of falling into old routines and settling when he knew there was so much more.

“Just tonight, please.” Nandor begged, voice gentle and pleading as he reached for his hand again grasping it in his own.

“Nadja would lose her shit if I went in there.”

“I don’t care, she already wants to kill me most days anyway. I want you to be here.”

Guillermo looked down at their joined hands, the smoke that swirled in the air from burning flesh. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Yes, of course it does, but I would like to have something other than that note to remember you.” 

Guillermo swallowed hard, he pulled his hand away, the cross burned into the palm of Nandor’s hand was a deep ugly wound that most likely would scar. He removed the rings dropping them to the floor with a solid thud, he took hold of his wrist bringing his hand up to his lips pressing a quick kiss against the skin beneath the mark before releasing him. 

“You should go, the sun is going to be rising in about an hour.” 

Nandor made no move to leave, he remained in his seat staring at him as if he were considering one final plea or move to convince him to stay, to follow him into the house and back into a life that once had been comfortable for them. 

He opened his mouth to begin to say to something but closed it a second later, wordlessly he turned away and climbed out of the car slamming the door shut behind himself. Guillermo watched as he made his way up the front door, there was a depressing finality in the dark silence of the car, a realization that he was finally done with a long leg of his life and being thrown into a new terrifying place filled with mystery. As he climbed into the driver’s seat and started up the car he only felt emptiness as he pulled back out onto the street and away from a place he’d considered his home.


	2. Chapter 2

In the days that passed since the theatre incident things had been relatively quiet, no assassins, no rogue vampires coming to bother them, and no crows from the Council sent to summon them to yet another trial. Nandor was grateful for that at least, if there was one positive in this entire situation it was that he didn’t need to worry about being burned in the sun or having his head cut off. The good news began and ended there though; Nadja and Laszlo had been immediately on him the following night about Guillermo. They were angry at him for knowing about Guillermo’s side job of vampire hunting, it didn’t seem to make a difference to them that several of those vampire kills had been accidents while others had been the deaths of vampires coming to kill them, of course the vampire family that Guillermo had slain there was no excuse for that. It’s not like it sat well with him knowing that Guillermo had entered the home of innocent vampires and killed them at their weakest, but he was sure there was a reason for it, there was a reason for everything that Guillermo had done. He argued with them that if anything they should be grateful to Guillermo for spending the past year protecting them and they should possibly be grateful that he came to rescue them, Colin Robinson had been quick to point out that Nandor had been the least grateful to be rescued that night.

He still deeply regretted that. He hadn’t expected to see Guillermo that night, he’d hopefully assumed that Guillermo was some place far from them, that he was safe, and that after their deaths he could just resume a regular human life where he may be happy. He hadn’t expected or wanted Guillermo to swoop in and slay a good hundred vampires in order to rescue them, in doing so he had exposed himself as a vampire slayer and now every vampire in the whole of New York wanted his head on a stake and to bathe in the VanHelsing’s blood. 

Currently he lay on his chaise lounge opening and closing a cheap cell phone he had stolen from his most recent victim, a man whose corpse was currently slumped on the floor, head turned at an awkward and gruesome angle, eyes bulging and glazed over, and blood soaking his neck and chest from gaping wound caused by a set of fangs. Nandor idly ran his tongue across his bottom lip, tasting the bitter copper of the man’s blood. He turned his attention back to the small phone; Colin had been kind enough to give him Guillermo’s cell phone number allowing him to call him any given chance. He had tried using the landline with no luck, he’d asked Nadja for her phone only to be chastised for wanting to get back into contact with a slayer, so now he was left with nicked phones from dead people. He felt uneasy being unable to get into contact with Guillermo, calling and calling only for it to go straight to voicemail, each time he left awkward rambling messages trying to explain his concern or lack of, most times he just hung up.

When a shrill sound came from the phone it startled him, he nearly dropped it until realizing it was an incoming call. Hurriedly he pressed the green button and put the phone to his ear. “Guillermo?” He asked, excitement filling his voice despite how he promised himself that he would pretend to not care at all.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line that left him feeling anxious and worried. “Who is this?” It was a woman’s voice on the other end, a woman who sounded rightfully confused as to why a man from Iran had answered a phone that didn’t belong to him.

Instead of responding he ended the call and threw the phone across the room watching as it hit the wall breaking into half before falling to the floor. He supposed he could just try again another time, or he could offer to do a favor or two for Colin Robinson in exchange for Guillermo’s new address. He liked to think that his former familiar was some place safe, that he had a new much safer job and was moving on with his natural human life. He had never understood why Guillermo wanted to be a vampire so badly, he never seemed to realize just how lonely and tiresome immortality could be, if it weren’t for his roommates Nandor would have gone mad long ago, he knew without a doubt he would have ended up like the Baron which terrified him. Realizing that the longer a vampire lived the more monster like they could become worried him, Guillermo’s presence, his gentle loving humanity had made him feel at least slightly human again, alive. Decades and centuries passed by too quickly leaving him often disorientated and just jaded, he hadn’t been passionate about anything since the 1990s, not until Guillermo had come into his life with wide soft brown eyes and tousled curls of hair, begging him to turn him into a vampire. 

He had denied him countless times, he’d spent nearly a month turning Guillermo away until he finally just caved in. The then nineteen-year-old hadn’t feared him, he’d stared at him with an admiration Nandor hadn’t seen since he was alive, something in that adoration had been addicting, had made him long for a time far gone. Even the night he told him he would take him on as a familiar and turn him within a year he knew it had been alive, but just like Benji and Pamela and every familiar before that Guillermo had bought the lie. Except Guillermo had stayed longer than any of them, some stayed on for a year or five, others made it to ten before getting fed up with his shit, and of course there were ones like Benji that he had to hypnotize and leave somewhere else in hopes they would just give up on this ridiculous dream of becoming a vampire. If Nandor had been given a choice the night he’d been turned he would have turned it down, he’d had his army to worry about getting back home to their families, he’d just lost his horse, and he’d had his own family to worry about seeing again. At thirty-nine and doing the best anybody could hope for in his time he would never have traded in in for anything, especially this.

Of course, now at nearly eight-hundred years old he couldn’t imagine being human again, he was far too lost to the past to adjust to human life now, there wasn’t much that appealed to him now. Except of course Guillermo, but he couldn’t have him. He refused to curse him to immortality and bloodlust, bind Guillermo to himself forever until they became stalemate. He knew of course if Guillermo stayed human then their romance would be rocky, he would stay thirty-nine forever while Guillermo would age and inevitably die, a thought that filled him with anxiety as he thought about it. 

It was silly of course to think there could ever be a romance, he’d blown any chance of that on multiple occasions, two of those occasions in a single night. He had spent eleven years walking a tense line when it came to Guillermo; wanting more and more to treat him as a friend or something more, but also not wanting to deal with the taunts or judgement from his roommates who saw the very concept of befriending or dating a familiar as ridiculous and absurd. Now that they knew Guillermo was also a vampire slayer, they were even less thrilled, he knew out of everybody he should be the most upset by the revelation. He should have been angry when he found out Guillermo had killed the Baron, he should have confronted him the night that he came home drenched in vampire blood, and he should have thrown him to the wolves the morning he caught him after he killed Carol. He couldn’t bring himself to do so, he couldn’t betray his loyalty and trust, he couldn’t even fake anger towards him. Ever since the theatre incident he had been wrestling with that, wondering why it was that he could turn a blind eye to so much where Guillermo was concerned. He’d known him for so many years that it was nearly impossible to see him as anything other than that wide eyed teen that used to work at Panera Bread, even seeing him standing amongst those corpses covered in blood hadn’t changed the way Nandor saw him. 

Idly he ran his index finger along the crucifix shaped scar on the palm of his hand, he closed his eyes and tried to picture the last time they’d been near each other, he thought about how he should have taken his chance and kissed him that night in the car or at the theatre, he should have curled his fingers in his hair and held him closely against himself, whispered against his lips that he was his everything, more than he could ever deserve. Now he was only left with a scar on his hand and thoughts of what he should have done.


	3. Chapter 3

Guillermo felt slightly ridiculous wandering the aisles of the library three blocks from his apartment searching for books on VanHelsing and vampire slayers, sure there were a few titles that were serious about the history and origin of slayers, but then most of them treated it as fictitious. He gathered a many of the books as he could carry before making his way back to the small table towards the back away from the high school students studying for essays and the elders just looking for a place to sit in peace for an hour or two. He laid out the pile of books across the table and picked up one titled; The History of the Original Slayer. As he flipped through the book scanning over the pages, he realized it wasn’t anything he hadn’t known before; VanHelsing, the first proper vampire hunting VanHelsing had been a brilliant and kind man who as he aged had grown rather crude and eccentric, eventually taken down by a vampire. There of course had been a son who carried out his father’s legacy, he himself had had three children of his own, two of the three had gone on to becoming vampire slayers, while the third chose to pursue medicine. Just like their father and grandfather they met violent demises at the hands of vampires with a grudge towards the family, even the doctor of the family was found in his office with a large chunk of flesh ripped from his throat and a scalpel sticking out of his eye. 

From what he could gather Carol hadn’t been wrong about him, he was consumed with the stench of death; not just the deaths of the vampires he’d spent the past year slaying, but the vampires his ancestors hunted, and the stench of rotting death of his own family. There were theories in the book that the VanHelsing bloodline didn’t have a choice in the matter when it came to monster hunting, many of them described in their journals and to their loved ones that it felt like a deep hungering urge, they couldn’t control it or help it. Many who studied the family history felt that perhaps nature decided for every predator there needed to be prey; lions hunted gazelles, humans hunted lions, vampires hunted humans, and for the vampires there needed to be slayers to keep the balance. It did make sense when simplistically put, he knew that nature worked like one big circle of consumption and murder, but when he personally knew his potential prey that changed things. His former roommates had been his friends, sure they had driven him crazy and pissed him off on countless occasions, but they were still people he’d known since he was nineteen and the thought of seeing them as nothing more than prey made his stomach turn. 

He closed the book sliding it far away from himself, the next that he picked up was a smaller brown leather-bound book, a published collection of letters and journal pages from an alleged VanHelsing titled; Slaying in the Old West. This one had apparently lived in the days of the Wild West, he’d married, and had several children. He had made it his mission to hunt vampires, he had apparently caught word of a colony of vampires attempting to live peacefully away from humans, experimenting with a diet of animal blood to stave off the urge to hurt people. It seemed the slayer didn’t believe that vampires could go without harming an innocent person and there had been a few vampires within the colony who rejected the idea of an animal diet, when people in a neighboring town began going missing or turning up with puncture wounds in their necks it raised anger and suspicion leading to VanHelsing going into the colony with the intent to kill everybody there. Just like others in the family he had ended up attacked by a vampire, turned by her bite, as a last act of heroism he’d set fire to the town killing a majority of the colony, and then he himself had walked into the fire to die with the other monsters.

The disgust that he showed for vampires, the lack of understanding, and empathy was hard for Guillermo to understand. They to some extent were people still, people who had technically died long ago, but still people, nonetheless. They had friends, they took lovers, they had hobbies and jobs like anybody else. He knew that most vampires never sought out vampirism, it had come to them hidden in the shadows, he thought about Nandor and how he never quite told him how he had been turned. The few times early on when Guillermo had questioned him about how he’d been turned he’d tensed and looked paler than usual, a haunted look in his eyes before he would awkwardly state that it wasn’t something to be talked about right now. Whatever had happened to him Guillermo knew it had to have been traumatic, it wasn’t like he wished that for himself. Of course, Guillermo wanted to be a vampire, well he did, he wasn’t entirely sure about now, but if he were to be turned, he wanted Nandor to be the one to do it. 

He knew though that the likelihood of that happening now was quite low, he hadn’t seen him for over a month now, and yet nearly every night for a month now Nandor would call him leaving awkward rambling messages on his phone asking him how he was, where he was, and just pleading with him to let him know that he was still alive. He didn’t feel good about dodging his calls, but he didn’t know what to say; he already knew if he answered the phone that they would have the same conversation they had had in the car that night, and he couldn’t handle more of Nandor being hurt by the news that he was never coming back home. He couldn’t, not when the Council and every vampire in the state wanted to see him dead. He would never be able to forgive himself if he dragged Nandor back into that mess, if he ended up hurt or dead then Guillermo wasn’t sure he could live with that. 

As he gazed over the books on the table he wondered if in the history of his lineage if a single VanHelsing had ever fallen in love with a vampire, did it always have to be a violent glorious end? Couldn’t there to be somebody undocumented in his family history that decided being a hunter wasn’t for them and instead settled down with a vampire, turned consensually and lived a long wonderfully immortal life. He knew without picking up another book that that was rather unlikely, he was the first one like this, that felt that urge to seek out vampires as a child and mistook it for a longing to be one instead of a longing to kill them. As time wore on, he felt a shift in the tide; killing vampires came easier to him with each one that he slaid, the adrenaline rush he got from slaying was the best high of his life, but the guilt that tore him up on the inside after each kill left him depressed for days. 

Guillermo gathered the books back up stacking them into a neat pile, he slipped his phone from his pocket for the fifth time that day checking for missed calls or texts, but there was nothing yet. He knew that there would be no calls from Nandor until well into the night and early morning, calls from different numbers, the occasional awkward attempt at texting, and if those calls ever stopped coming in then it would break his heart.


	4. Chapter 4

Perhaps it was due to the loneliness that consumed him, drowning him that led to this he thought as he lovingly caressed the stubbly cheek of the man standing before him. There was a lustful adoration in the man’s vibrant green eyes as he stared up at him, a smile tugging at full lips as he leaned up pressing his lips to his in a desperate kiss. Typically, he didn’t do this, he hunted his victims like prey in the woods, and pounced. He didn’t wine and dine them, he didn’t bring them back to the house let alone his crypt where they crowded him back against the door, a hand pressed between his legs cupping his evident arousal, a growling moan escaping past his lips as this practical stranger bit and sucked against his bottom lip. With his eyes closed for a moment he could pretend it was Guillermo, he had the same sweet scent yet there was something missing; there wasn’t the same underlying scent of something earthy and metallic like rot and old Earth, this man smelled purely and deliciously human. Nandor’s fingers trailed along the side of his neck tracing his pulse, he could count each beat of his heart in his head, he could feel the life vibrating through this man’s body. It was bizarre to him how easy it was to get a stranger to follow him home, he’d always assumed Nadja and Laszlo used hypnosis to lure humans back home to feed upon, but apparently a wink and a smile was more than enough to get a stranger to come back to your place for a night cap.

The stranger broke from the kiss panting and smiling, eyes alight with lust as they scanned over the length of his body imagining the things, they could do to each other. A wave of guilt washed over him causing the aching in his chest to return, without a moment’s hesitation he gripped a fistful of the stranger’s hair jerking his head to the side. The man never had time to register or react what was about to happen before Nandor’s fangs pierced into the soft yielding flesh of his throat, he jerked his head causing his fangs to tear his flesh further. The man let out a choked off scream that ended in a gurgle, he tried to move away, but Nandor pulled his struggling form close against himself as blood poured from the wound and into his mouth, he moaned as it rushed over his tongue and ran down his throat filling him with a warmth that would be short lived. When he fed, he felt very nearly alive, sometimes he could swear his heart was beating again, he closed his eyes and basked in the warmth that reminded him of summer days in his home country, the heat of the desert, the cool waters him and his siblings would swim in when they weren’t busy working or training. He chased that sensation as he drank from the man who kicked and hit against his unyielding form, as he fed the struggling died down, the man’s heartbeat slowed to a near stop, his head rolled and lolled his chin resting against his stomach, as he felt that last ounce of life seep from the man’s body, he pulled back running his tongue across his bottom lip. 

Unceremoniously he let the man’s body drop to the floor with a loud thud, he landed slumped over on his side, legs crossed over each other, arms stretched out and eyes bulging and already glazing over as they stared into nothingness. He resembled a rag doll now, nothing left of the man he’d picked up at the bar who had been flirting with him only an hour earlier. Already he felt the warmth flooding out of him only leaving behind a terrible coldness that reminded him of a late night in the desert, tired and depressed, wandering aimlessly only to be attacked by something he could not see.

He knelt and began searching the man’s jeans pockets in search of his phone, once he found it, he pulled it from his pocket and retreated to the chase lounge. He wasn’t certain why he was still doing this to himself; Guillermo hadn’t answered any of his calls or texts for nearly two months now, something terrible had happened to him or he truly just didn’t want to ever speak to him again. Both possibilities scared him more than he was comfortable with admitting, it still rubbed him the wrong way that a single human being could make him feel this way, he hadn’t loved for such a long time, never this fiercely, not since he died. He couldn’t blame Guillermo if he never wanted to speak to him again, he had had countless chances to make something of their relationship, but he had fucked up every opportunity until finally he’d run out of chances. 

“Why am I even bothering with this, he doesn’t love me.” Nandor asked partially to himself and to his deceased guest who remained on the floor lifeless as ever.

It didn’t stop him from dialing in the familiar number, he held the phone to his ear as he laid back staring up at his ceiling. He watched as a rather large black spider scurried across the ceiling to her web in the corner where an egg sack appeared to be waiting for her, he counted the rings as he watched her.

“Hello?” A familiar voice asked from the other end of the line.

Nandor sat up excitement flooding his system as he grinned. “Guillermo!”


	5. Chapter 5

It was one of those nights where the air was still, the world mostly silent as if it had been abandoned by all things living, only the dead and the undead remained wandering its surface. Guillermo felt utterly alone as he walked through the park, a cold wind blew chilling his face and tousling his hair, he pulled his jacket tighter around himself, fingers nearly numb with cold as he walked the paved pathway. A flickering streetlamp caught his eye, moths and flies circled the dimming bulb, landing against the glass covering only to fly away from it once the heat became too much, others stayed until they dropped lifelessly to the pavement below. He remembered being a kid and walking the streets at night with Jeremy, they made a game of staying in the pools of light, teasing each other that a monster would snatch them up if they stepped into the shadows. Now he found himself longing to stay inside the circles of light cast across the ground, despite knowing that the light didn’t always equate safety, if anything wanted him then it would get him regardless of artificial lights.

He slowed in his walking when he thought he heard something behind him, he listened closely closing his eyes. He could hear the birds flocking from tree limb to limb, the wind rustling leaves that had fallen to the cold Earth, in the distance he heard car horns and the occasional siren from an ambulance, but nothing else. He opened his eyes and began walking again, a bit faster now, he slid his hand inside his jacket running his fingers along the length of the wooden stake he kept on his person. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, but something felt off. He felt as if he were being watched by something from the darkness, something trailing him waiting for just the right moment to pounce.

Unlucky for him that moment was soon. Something heavy slammed into his back throwing him face first against the sidewalk, his cheek scraped the ground burning pain shooting through his face, fingers curled in his hair jerking his head back. Guillermo wrapped his fingers around the stake struggling to pull it free, he could feel cold rotting breath against his cheek as his attacker leaned in closer to his face. He took this opportunity to reach for them tangling his fingers in their hair pulling hard causing them to hiss in pain. He bucked back knocking his assailant off his back, awkwardly he climbed to his feet turning to face them, the vampire was on their feet a moment later, advancing on him faster than he had expected. There was a certain rage emanating off them as they gripped the wrist of the hand that held the wooden stake, squeezing until Guillermo yelped in pain dropping his weapon the ground.

“You killed my sister,” the vampire hissed as he gripped his throat with his free hand backing him up against a nearby tree.

“What?”

“The Theatre, you killed her that night, I’ve been looking everywhere for you, slayer.” 

If it weren’t for the fight or flight instinct kicking in, he would feel guilty for what he’d done, but right now all he could think about was escape, getting his stake and driving it deep into the heart of the vampire that currently was choking him. He placed his free hand against the vampire’s chest grabbing hold of the front of his dress shirt pulling him closer until his face was a mere inch from his own, he leaned forward and bit the man’s nose hard enough to pierce the skin, soured ancient blood spilled into his mouth gagging him. The vampire released his hold on his throat stumbling backwards, one hand cupped over his bleeding nose, his eyes darkened with hatred as he watched Guillermo dive for the stake. The vampire knocked him back onto the ground rolling him onto his back, Guillermo flailed beneath him attempting to knock him off. With a deep animalistic growl, the man hauled back and punched him hard in the face causing his head to knock against the pavement, for just one second, he swore he blacked out, a dull throb shooting through his skull, pain blooming in his right eye. He wrapped his fingers around the stake and before the vampire could make another move, he was driving the sharpened piece of wood through his chest, he shouted as he threw the vampire back onto the ground kneeling over him. The look of hatred turned to one of fear as the monster stared up at him with wide bulging eyes, mouth gaping open, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth as his body went limp against the cold Earth. Guillermo was left gasping for breath, hands trembling as he removed the stake from the corpse and pocketed it back inside his jacket. Slowly he climbed to his feet, post kill guilt welled up inside him as he looked down at his victim.

The sound of his phone ringing startled him, he didn’t tear his eyes away from the corpse as he slipped his phone from his pants pocket and pressed the green answer call button as he held the phone up to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Guillermo!” A familiar heavily accented voice answered excitedly on the other end.

Guillermo flinched at the sound of Nandor’s voice, a wave of guilt washed over him as he considered just hanging up and throwing his phone away, getting a new one with a new number. “Shit, sorry, I mean hey.” 

“I didn’t think you would answer, I thought it would be your mailbox again.” He responded as if he couldn’t read how badly Guillermo didn’t want to be talking to him right now. Not when he was standing over a vampire corpse, stained with blood that was a mix of his own and his victim’s.

“Guess you caught me at a good time.” He muttered, he supposed he couldn’t put off talking to him forever as much as he wanted to.

“How have you been, I’ve been…. I thought perhaps something bad had happened to you and that’s why you had not answered any of my calls, that or Colin Robinson gave me the wrong number and I was bothering some stranger.”

He couldn’t help but smile at that, he had listened to some of his rambling voicemails countless times just to hear his voice. The sadness and regret in his voice always stung, but it was nice to know that he did care. Somehow, he still cared after being ignored for two months.

“I’m…I’m fine, look I’m sorry about never answering the phone I just…I’ve just been busy.” He had been busy at first with researching his family’s history, with finding a new part time job to pay for an apartment of his own, he’d also begun selling his artwork and writing online and doing commission pieces as well. When he wasn’t doing any of that he was busy slaying vampires who wanted his head on a stick for what he’d done to their friends and family members that night at the Theatre. Mostly though he was simply scared of this conversation, scared of hearing that hopeful tone in Nandor’s voice that maybe things could be normal again.

“I understand, I’ve been busy too of course.” He lied unconvincingly. 

After eleven years of knowing him he could easily read when he was lying, but he refused to call him out on it, not this time.

“Right, how are you doing?” 

There was a long pause and he regretted asking such a stupid question. 

“I’m…. I would like if I could see you.”

Guillermo sighed, he turned away from the corpse that lay on the ground and began walking away back towards the direction of his apartment. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

He hadn’t seen Nandor for two months, in those two months he felt like he’d become a completely different person or else he liked to try and convince himself of that. He’d tried to convince himself over these past months that he was better off without the vampire, that getting far away from his old life was a step in the right direction, he couldn’t be that person anymore. Then he thought of the last time he saw him, the soft loving look in those eyes, the way he touched him as if he feared letting him go. Some nights Guillermo wished he could go back to that night and that moment and live in it forever.

“Please, I need to see you, just this once.” He pleaded, his voice had a soft desperation to it much like it had months ago and it caused Guillermo’s heart to ache at the sound of it.

There was something about hearing Nandor pleading; on one hand it was amusing to know that he could make such a proud stubborn man beg, but on the other hand it killed him. He didn’t enjoy knowing he could cause him this much emotional distress, it confused him knowing that in some bizarre way that he meant this much to Nandor. That this vampire who had lived for nearly a thousand years could be willing to risk anything and everything just to see him one more time, the very realization brought tears to his eyes that burned and blurred his vision.

“Okay, fine, you can drop by tonight.” He relented, voice trembling slightly as he told him the address.

“Thank you, Guillermo, I will see you soon.” 

“Yeah, see you soon.” Guillermo ended the call and slipped his phone back into his pocket.

He wiped at the tears that rolled down his flushed cheeks, hands still shaking as anxiety gripped his heart in its cold grasp. He didn’t know why he was agreeing to seeing him again, he wasn’t sure he could handle seeing Nandor again without wanting to try and go back to the way things were. He missed the house they all shared, he missed Sean’s drunken rambling, he missed hearing Laszlo play piano while Nadja sang along usually terribly off key, and he missed Nandor. He missed every good and bad thing about the vampire that he used to call master, a vampire he idolized but then had fallen in love with, and he knew if he saw him again that the love would come crashing over him like a harsh ocean wave drowning him, and he was tempted to allow it to do so.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time that Guillermo reached the door of his apartment his face was throbbing, there was a dull ache in his back and side from where he had been thrown around by the vampire in the park, the blood that stained his face and the back of his head had dried making his skin feel tight and itchy, overall, he felt disgusting. He reminded himself again that Nandor would be here soon, it was the last thing he needed on top of everything else, but truthfully, he was lonely. They both were he supposed, after over eleven years of living together this was the longest, they had been apart. There were still late evenings he woke with a start thinking he was late to waking the vampire up and getting him ready for the night, there were times where he sat around his small sparsely decorated living room bored out of his mind because he had nobody to speak to, nobody who would prattle on about wars. He knew two things; he loved him, and he missed him greatly, those were the only explanations as why he could possibly miss hearing Nandor repeat his war stories. He even missed nights spent watching the Twilight saga with Nandor, biting back his complaints at how utterly ridiculous the story was, because how enthralled the vampire was with the entire thing was heartwarming. 

As he walked through his dimly lit living space he felt truly and utterly alone, he’d read that quite a few of his ancestors chose to be alone. Apparently when they tried to date or start families of their own it often ended with vampires killing their loved ones to send a message to them. He worried about that sort of thing happening to his vampires, to the one he was pathetically in love with, the very possibility made him sick. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to share the person he was becoming with Nandor, now that most of everything was out in the open there was an obvious shift in their relationship, a sudden power imbalance the second he’d nearly staked him. He knew deep down that some part of Nandor feared him, it was logical for him to feel that way after all, just a part of nature, instincts that they both felt deep in their bones that told them to fight or run in the face of true danger. Guillermo didn’t want to be danger though, he just wanted to be a typical human.

He never thought he’d want to just be normal or human, ever since he was a child watching movies like Dracula and Interview with the Vampire on VHS repeatedly until the tapes stopped working and his mom had to buy him a second then third copy, he had known he wanted to be a vampire. 

As he entered his bedroom he flipped on the light switch, he blinked against the sudden brightness of the light that flooded the small room, he kicked off his shoes shoving them with his foot towards the wall next to his door before he headed towards the connected bathroom. He worried how bad he looked, he knew his face was bruised, he was grateful he’d chosen to go with contacts instead of glasses tonight, he had grown tired of having to replace his glasses each time a vampire ambushed him while he was out. As he stood before the mirror that hung above his sink, he assessed the damage done to himself; under his eye there was indeed a large bruise, a deep purple edged in green, blood stained his face. The Earth toned sweater he wore was further darkened with blood from the vampire he had slain, he grabbed the hem of his top pulling it up and off tossing it into the laundry basket that sat next to the sink. He doubted he had time for a shower, but he could at least wash the blood from his face.

The anxious feeling settled in his gut reminded him of the few times in high school he’d been set up on blind dates, that fear that the person would be disappointed by what they saw when he arrived at the restaurant or the park, that they would force a polite smile then tell him that something had come up and they had to go back home. It was ridiculous to feel this way of course, he knew Nandor, but anymore it felt like Nandor didn’t know him. Carefully Guillermo splashed warm water against his face wetting his skin, he rubbed in his face wash doing his best to not press too hard against his bruised skin, he lowered his head again washing the suds from his face. When he looked at himself again, he did look better, well he looked less like he’d just been in Fight Club at least, of course there was still dirt and blood in his hair, and the significantly sized bruise on his cheek, but he looked fine enough. 

Knocking on the front door startled him, his heart racing. 

“Stop freaking out, it’s Nandor, you know him.” He chastised himself as he exited the bathroom and made his way back into the living room and to the door. Still his palms felt sweaty and his throat felt as if it were firmly planted in his throat choking him as he unlocked and opened the door to reveal the vampire he hadn’t seen in years.

Any thoughts of speaking or playing it cool died the moment he laid eyes on the vampire; dressed as he always was in deep crimsons with intricate golden detail, a black cape draped over broad shoulders, objectively he was an intimidating figure who towered over Guillermo, but his size and presence were a nostalgic comfort as Guillermo gaped up at him. He thankfully wasn’t the only one staring, Nandor’s eyes scanned over him, a soft longing in their dark depths as he took him in.

“C-come in,” Guillermo managed to choke out as he gestured for him to enter his home.

Without hesitation he entered Guillermo’s apartment, before he could comprehend what was happening Nandor was cupping his cheek in hand, the pad of his thumb carefully stroking against his bruised skin. The vampire stood nearly pressed against him, his cool breath ghosting against his heated skin as he looked down at him.

“What happened to you, who hurt you?” He questioned, there was a danger in his words, and Guillermo knew if the vampire who attacked him had managed to live that Nandor would kill him before sunrise. Something about that made his heart skip a beat, warmth replacing his anxiety for a second. 

“I’m fine, it was just a vampire who had a grudge against me, I took care of it.” He softly assured him, still Nandor looked worried as he stroked his fingers across the discolored skin, his touch welcoming and cold against heated flesh. 

The air around them felt still as if in this moment all time stopped progressing. Guillermo had to remind himself to continue breathing as he looked up into the eyes of the vampire, he wasn’t sure if he should pull away or move closer. He hadn’t expected to ever see him again, he certainly hadn’t expected to see him tonight just the same way he hadn’t expected to be attacked earlier in the night. 

“Does it hurt?” He asked, his voice low and gentle as he leaned in closer.

“No,” he lied smiling awkwardly, “a little bit, yeah okay it hurts a lot.” He admitted.

Nandor smirked, he carefully trailed his fingers along his jaw. Guillermo could feel his cool breath against his lips, if he leaned in just half an inch closer then he could feel those lips against his, and despite every reasonably paranoid fear he felt within himself he wanted that more than anything. He wanted to be kissed by him, he wanted him to make him forget about who he was and every bad thing that had been happening for the past year of his life. 

“Nandor,”

“Yes?”

“Kiss me,” he whispered, his heart thudded in his chest, and he worried that somehow, he ruined this fragile moment in time. “Please,” he added weakly.

The vampire closed the minute distance between them as his lips brushed against his in a gentle hesitant attempt at a kiss before pressing more firmly. He could feel Nandor’s body press against his, one hand moving to rest at the small of his back holding him flush against him. Guillermo couldn’t help but moan into the kiss, he reached up placing a hand against the back of his head his fingers tangling in soft locks of dark hair holding the vampire in place as he eagerly kissed him back. Years of longing, of lust, and love poured into this single moment as Nandor walked him backwards until his back gently collided with the wall, he moaned when the vampire nipped against his bottom lip sucking against it. Long deft fingers worked to unbutton the white dress shirt he wore as they continued to kiss, all his fears faded away, there was only the here and now.


	7. Chapter 7

Nandor’s touch was feather light as he stroked his fingers along Guillermo’s bruised cheek, eyes searching his face for signs that this was okay, that what had just transpired wasn’t a mistake. The human seemed mostly relaxed, his own soft brown eyes staring back at him as if he was attempting to just enjoy post orgasmic bliss. Nandor pressed a gentle kiss against his forehead then the bridge of his nose and finally a lingering kiss against his lips which his partner happily returned, fingers curling in the now tangled mess that was the vampire’s hair. Nandor’s hand moved from his cheek to his shoulder where another bruise marred his skin, he’d made a point of kissing every bruise and scar on his body that he’d seen, he wished to slaughter every vampire who thought they had had the right to lay hands on his human. He wasn’t really his though, was he? They hadn’t spoken for months; sex didn’t exactly mean anything despite how desperately he hoped that it did. Even the way Guillermo looked at him, the way he trailed soft kisses along his jaw and down the column of his throat didn’t mean anything. This could all change in a second, Guillermo could retrieve his pants from the hallway and throw them at him, demand he dress, and get out. He could realize by sunrise that this was a mistake. Nandor admitted it was not how he’d intended this to play out, but he wasn’t upset by it at all. To be in bed with him like this, the warmth of his body pressed against him, one hand roaming down his side coming to rest against his hip, the teasing nip of blunt teeth against skin was a lovely thing. This was everything he’d hoped to feel in the touches from nameless strangers, he knew now that nobody else could replace Guillermo. 

The thought of this ending scared him now more than it had before he’d come to his apartment. He longed to whisper to him that he loved him, the words were on the tip of his tongue ready to burst forth and either deepen their passions or break this fragile moment shared between them. He curled his fingers in his partner’s hair pulling him up and into a passionate kiss to bury the words before they could force him to face reality. When he kissed him, he could keep those words to himself, those horrible words that left him feeling utterly powerless. In some way he’d resented Guillermo for months, ever since he came to realize the way he felt towards him. He didn’t like a person, a human being able to make him feel this way. Knowing this human could walk out on him and leave him broken and terribly depressed for weeks and months angered him and terrified him, he should hate him, he shouldn’t want to share a bed with him and risk those feelings of love deepen. The more he loved him then the more it would hurt when this ended all over again.

Nandor broke from the kiss as much as he didn’t want to, “should we talk?” He hesitated to ask; the doubt evident in his voice.

“Not right now, let’s just forget everything for a while.” 

He couldn’t help but think about that night after the massacre at the theatre, how anxious Guillermo had been then, blood soaked, and so confused about everything. That night seemed like a million years ago at this point, he seemed like a completely different person, Nandor wasn’t sure if that was good or not. He missed his naïve innocence he hadn’t seen for years now, he seemed happier back then, but he seemed relatively happy now, or at least he was pretending to be.

Nandor sighed, he kissed him gently. “I’m sorry,”

“For what?”

“I was a terrible master to you and a bad friend; you deserved much better than that.” 

He had never been great at the master and familiar thing, he’d found himself only ever hiring people that he could picture himself getting along with, and in some cases, he befriended them or began to feel a romantic attraction to them. Which always made it all the worse when they would ask him when he planned on turning them, a cold slap in the face reminding him that they only stuck around waiting to be turned into vampires, they didn’t care about him. It was a contributing reason to keeping Guillermo at a distance for so many years, the reason why he so adamantly hadn’t wanted to take him on as a familiar to begin with; why would somebody that young with a whole life to look forward to want to give it away like that? Nandor would give anything in the world to have a second of his humanity back, to feel the sun on his skin, to see his friends, to hug his mother one last time. Now as time wore on the thought of Guillermo aging and inching closer to death whether at a ripe old age or young and in a blaze of violent glory scared him, he selfishly didn’t want to lose him to the greedy hands of death. He wanted to be the only being of death to hold him in his cold gentle grasp.

Guillermo brushed his fingers against his cheek bringing him back to the present, he smiled softly at him. “I forgive you for…. Most things, there’s still stuff I’m upset about, but it’ll take time and work for that. We’ve known each other for nearly twelve years, and I spent most of that time feeling like you never cared about me.” He confessed, a deep settled sadness tinting his words as he continued to brush his fingers against his cheek.

His words hurt, but they weren’t a surprise. He took hold of his wrist bringing his hand to his lips pressing gentle kisses against his palm. “I’m sorry, I’ll apologize to you every day for a lifetime.” He whispered against his skin.

When he glanced at him, he noticed him blushing, he couldn’t help but smirk at the fact he could make him blush. He pressed a kiss against the underside of his wrist feeling the thrumming of his pulse beneath his skin, a sound and sensation that left something within him aching with hunger. He released his wrist, he leaned in to kiss him gently choosing to ignore the feeling in the pit of his stomach, that need to consume and to devour until there was nothing left at all. Guillermo broke from the kiss, he ran his hand up and down along his side as if he wanted to memorize the shape of his body as much as Nandor wanted to memorize his.

“Are you going to stay the day here?”

“I can, as long as you’re okay with that.”

“Yeah, I just….Do Laszlo and Nadja know that you’re here?”

Nandor laughed in response, “no, I think Nadja would stake me if she knew that I was here with you right now.”

Guillermo grimaced at that, “they’re still scared of me then.”

“Yes,” he confessed as he pet his fingers through the soft curls of his partner’s hair. “They will get over it though, it just takes time, something else will upset them or excite them, they never remember for long.” He pressed a kiss against his forehead. “Besides, I can always move out if it’s an issue for them, I won’t lose you just because they can’t get over the slayer thing.” 

Nandor wrapped an arm around his waist pulling him close against him as he moved to lay on his back, Guillermo curled up against his side resting his head against his broad chest. As he stared up at the plain white ceiling, he felt nearly human; laying in a soft yet firm bed holding the warm naked body of the man he loved, he could feel the rise and fall of his chest with each breath, the warmth of his breath against his skin, and of course he could hear his heart beating a gentle rhythm within his chest. 

“I can’t even get over the slayer thing, I can’t blame them for being upset. I keep researching my family and everything I’ve found out is terrifying, the dreams I have, and the way that I feel lately. I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

“It’s okay, please don’t worry about that now.” He whispered as he rubbed a hand along his back. “Everything is fine right now, yes?”

“Yeah, it’s just a lot to take in, and now this with you is also a lot.”

“In a bad way?”

There was a moment of silence that made him worry before Guillermo answered.

“No, this is probably the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I’m glad that I answered when you called, I needed to feel normal.”

“It’s no problem, anything for you.”

He meant that more than he’d ever meant anything before. He would never know for sure what it was about Guillermo that made him different from every other human he’d come across in his long lifetime, perhaps the monster in him sensed the monster within him, or perhaps he had a danger kink. He wasn’t for sure, but there was nothing that would prevent him from loving the human he currently was holding in his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

He wasn’t sure what it was that woke him up. Perhaps it was the fact he hadn’t slept in a bed for centuries or that he was sleeping in a home that wasn’t his own. Most likely it was the sudden absence of the warm body that had been curled up against him for most of the night and into the early hours of the morning. Nandor groaned and rolled onto his back staring up at the ceiling, he could hear Guillermo in the adjoining bathroom, the clicks and quiet thuds of cabinet doors shutting, sink water running followed by a shower being turned on. He turned his head to face the closed door and considered joining him, there wasn’t any real reason for him not to. He gave it another minute before climbing out of bed stretching before he made his way to the bathroom opening the door and quietly closing it behind him. Through the frosted glass of the shower door, he could see the blurred silhouette of his partner? He wanted to consider him a partner, a boyfriend, a lover, but he worried the moment he put a label on whatever had happened last night that he would be shot down. He knew morning regrets were a thing that existed for people, he’d had plenty of them when he’d been human, and considering all that Guillermo had gone through he wouldn’t be surprised if his feelings were different now in the morning light. Despite those gnawing anxious thoughts in the back of his mind he slid open the shower door and stepped inside. 

Guillermo was facing away from him, head tilted back, and eyes closed allowing the hot spray of water to wash over him. His sun kissed skin glistened under the spray, dark curls of hair sticking to his forehead and the sides of his face, droplets of water dotted across his full lips. Carefully Nandor wrapped his arms around his waist pressing against his back, Guillermo tensed for a second before relaxing against him, leaning back against his chest as he placed his own hands over top of Nandor’s. The silence between them was almost comfortable, Nandor pressed a kiss against the back of his shoulder, he closed his eyes sighing in content at the feeling of the water as it soaked his hair and skin. This was the closest to warmth he could truly get, and he could be okay with that he thought as he pressed another gentle kiss against the wet skin of his partner. Guillermo stroked his calloused fingers along his forearm. Nandor pressed a kiss against the top of his shoulder, he glanced up at his face to see his eyes open, his human chancing a glance towards him, his eyes wet and red as if he’d been crying.

“Are you okay?” He questioned before pressing another kiss against his shoulder, he nuzzled against him, the hair of his beard tickling Guillermo’s skin making him shiver.

“Fine, I’m fine, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“I don’t mind, did you have a bad dream?” 

Guillermo fell silent for a moment; he ran his fingers back through his hair pushing it out of his face. “It’s nothing, I’ve been having them a lot, they’re just startling sometimes is all.”

“Do you wish to talk to me about it?”

His human shook his head, a small kind smile on his face as he turned around to face him. “No, I’m already starting to forget what it was even about.” He quietly assured him as he rested a hand against his cheek, thumb brushing against his skin. Nandor leaned into his touch.

“This is nice,” he whispered.

This was the closest to happiness he’d been for an exceptionally long time, he was almost afraid of something ruining it. He knew if he’d just opened up sooner, if he’d been kinder, and less afraid then they could have had this a long time ago. There was something hurtful and bitter about knowing that they could have been like this sooner, a year or more ago. He had so much time to make up for now. He rested a hand against the small of his back keeping Guillermo pressed close against himself as he kissed him slowly, deeply, he couldn’t help but smile into the kiss when his partner moaned. Guillermo bit and sucked against his bottom lip drawing a low moan from the vampire who broke from the kiss smiling down at the human.

“Later,” he whispered as he kissed his forehead. He reached past him towards the shampoo bottle that sat on the shelf behind him, he pressed down on the pump which released a small amount of the honey-colored substance into the palm of his hand.

Guillermo almost seemed disappointed by the fact they were no longer kissing, something that he found slightly amusing as he began working the shampoo into his hair. 

He remembered as a human bathing with romantic partners, he remembered being bathed by servants or his wives, the occasional male lover. Of course, over the years that Guillermo had been his familiar he’d bathed him, washed his hair and cleaned blood and gore from his skin with a nearly worship like attention to detail. He felt he owed that to him now, that adoration, that gentle and thorough care. Guillermo seemed pleased with it, eyes closed, and lips parted, a soft moan passing his lips as Nandor massaged his scalp.

“Enjoying this?”

“Yes, a lot, you don’t have to do this though.” 

“I know, I want to.”

He came to realize he enjoyed bringing him pleasure, making him shiver, and moan. Seeing his cheeks flush, hair tousled, all shyness and reservation out the window. He felt connected to him, he always had in some strange and horrifying way. Maybe deep down it was the monster within him screaming at him to run in the other direction, to run away from a human who was the thing that lurked in darkness killing monsters like him, but instead he’d run towards that danger. Now he was in a shower with that danger massaging honey vanilla scented shampoo into his hair and admiring the soft mewling moans he made in response. He knew himself to be a terrible hypocrite where emotions were concerned, as a warrior he’d prided himself on hiding and burying his emotions, becoming something cold and lethal in order to survive and to conquer, but as time wore on, he was something different. That scared him, it bothered him, and Guillermo was in part to blame for that. He couldn’t find the heart to resent him, to hate him for it. He just knew in some way they were entangled, that he wanted to be near him, touching him, and breathing in the scent of Earth and rot that was etched into his very being. 

He tilted Guillermo’s head back until the water was washing the shampoo out of his curly locks, Nandor took the opportunity to kiss up along the column of his throat, the tip of his tongue trailing up his skin. He tangled his fingers in his hair pulling his head back down, he kissed him deeply, tongue easily pressing into his mouth as they kissed. His fingers brushed over bruised and scarred skin, the soft swell of his stomach, down over plush thick thighs he could spend a lifetime with his face buried between. Guillermo’s own hands wandered over him, he had his own scars from a mortal life, scars he wore with pride. He welcomed the warmth of his lover’s hands, he could hear his quickened heartbeat, he felt his hot breath against his lips between bouts of passionate kissing, and soon his back was pressed against the cool surface of the shower wall, Guillermo’s body pressed up against his, half hard cock brushing against his stomach. Declarations of want and love were on the tip of his tongue ready to spill out to add to the moment or break it entirely, the words only failing when he felt Guillermo’s fingers brush against a rough scar on the side of his neck.

Carefully he took hold of his wrist pulling his hand away from his neck, Guillermo looked at him with confusion and worry as if he were waiting to be scolded for what he’d just done. Nandor smiled at him, he pressed a kiss against his hand.

“Not there, please.” 

Guillermo looked as if he wanted to question him, to ask why he couldn’t touch him on that side of his neck, maybe even ask why that scar was so much more prominent than the rest, but instead he pressed a kiss to the center of his chest as if to ask forgiveness which was immediately forgiven. As if he needed forgiven at all. Nandor pet his fingers through his hair, he watched as his human lowered himself to his knees staring up at him with lust and adoration and potentially even love. He stroked his fingers over his cheek, along his jaw, his thumb trailing across his full bottom lip which Guillermo pressed a kiss against. If his heart still functioned it would be thudding against his chest, it would have done the same last night the first time he’d seen this beautiful man kneeling before him like this. He curled his fingers in his hair guiding him forward, a low growling moan escaping him as Guillermo slowly ran the flat of his tongue up along the length of his cock. He took the head of his cock into his mouth sucking gently, teasing as his tongue ran back and forth across the tip. Nandor pet his fingers through his hair resisting the urge to thrust into his mouth, he craved the wet heat of his mouth on his cock swallowing around him. He closed his eyes leaning his head back against the wall, he remembered last night taking Guillermo’s cock into his mouth, being able to allow his human to thrust into his mouth with abandon without worry of a gag reflex. His own cock twitched at the memory of that, thinking about the tight heat of his body, the way he thrust back against him last night begging him, calling out his name. 

“Fuck,” 

Guillermo took more of his cock into his mouth, tongue swirling around his length, Nandor rocked his hips carefully thrusting into his mouth. He tugged at his hair as he gave a second thrust, Guillermo moaned around him, he placed his hands against his hips stilling him. Nandor opened his eyes and looked down at him, he met his partner’s lustful eyes, he brushed his fingers against his cheek and praised him. The gentle whispered praises and words of encouragement seemed more than enough to get him to take more of his considerable length into his mouth, down into his throat, tears rolling down his cheeks as he closed his eyes, he began bobbing his head along his cock. Guillermo pulled back until only the head of his cock remained in his mouth, he wrapped his fingers around his base slowly stroking him as he licked and sucked. 

He was achingly hard as Guillermo teased his cock, alternating between sucking and licking before finally taking more of his cock into his mouth, tongue lavishing hardened flesh, his fingers stroking along his balls. Nandor pulled at his hair, another thrust into his mouth drawing a muffled moan from the man kneeling before him. His moans were deep and desperate, incoherent cursing with Guillermo’s name mixed in coming out like a sweet prayer. The human seemed to adore the attention, the power in being able to reduce such a powerful creature to a panting begging mess of a man. When he felt himself close to reaching his release, he gave a gentle warning tug to his hair, Guillermo pulled back until only the head of his cock was in his mouth, he pumped his cock with his hand, eyes locked on his as he worked him to completion. The vampire came with a low growling moan, cum splattering across Guillermo’s tongue and his cheek, the human slowly climbed to his feet, he smiled up at him seemingly proud of himself. Nandor placed a hand against his ass gripping him firmly as he pulled him close, he licked the cum from his cheek before kissing him deeply, tongue invading his mouth tasting himself there. 

Nandor nipped against his bottom lip, he could feel him shiver against him. 

“You know I didn’t plan on doing this when I woke up this morning.” Guillermo informed him, he had seemingly no intentions from moving from this spot, content and blissed out.

“Do you regret it?”

“No, this is much better, but my mom will probably be calling me wondering where I am.” 

“You’re going to see your mom today?” 

Guillermo hummed as he kissed along his jaw down along the unscarred side of his neck where he nuzzled. “I promised her I would try and drop by a couple of times a week. She had really wanted me to stay with her longer, but with everything happening I couldn’t risk that.” 

Nandor rubbed his hand along his back, he tried to remember if he’d ever heard Guillermo mention his mom in the past, but he couldn’t remember. He could hardly remember his own mother, his father or siblings either. He vaguely recalled the sound of her voice, the songs she used to sing to them as children, he remembered summers with his siblings, and training in the military with his brothers. Their faces were blurs, nearly static in his mind. 

“You two are close then?”

“We are, I’m sort of all she’s had since my dad passed away when I was a kid. She’s always been supportive of me, even when she hasn’t really understood me.” 

“She sounds lovely.”

He nearly wished he could meet her if this were a normal relationship then he could. If this were normal if they were both human, then things would be simpler. If Guillermo were a vampire then things would be simpler, but the knowledge that he had a mother he would never be able to speak to again made that thought painful. He’d never considered that his former familiar had a family he was close to, a lot of humans who decided they wanted to become vampires tended to not have families they were all that close with or no family at all, when you had nobody to look for you or wonder why you vanished off the face of the planet then the transition was easier. Nandor remembered the pain of losing his family, he couldn’t imagine making anybody else go through that.

“You okay?” Guillermo asked pulling back to look at him.

“I’m fine, I was just remembering something.” He kissed him gently, “the water’s getting cold, we should get out.” 

Guillermo nodded, he slid open the shower door and stepped out leaving Nandor to turn off the water before joining him. They took turns toweling each other off, taking every opportunity to kiss or allow a lingering touch. Nandor was the first to exit the bathroom, he found his white dress shirt on the floor near the bedroom door and his slacks in the hallway, his vest and his cape thrown over the couch, and his boots somehow had ended up in the kitchen. He settled on just wearing his dress shirt and slacks, he had no intention or way to leave the apartment until nightfall anyways, truthfully if Guillermo was still going out, he didn’t have much of anything to do. He settled down on the couch already bored and restless at the thought.

He looked around the sparsely decorated living room taking notice of the crosses that hung above the wall opposite of him, three of them hung above the flat screen TV, he winced looking away from them. The apartment didn’t feel lived in; there were a couple of unpacked cardboard boxes that sat between the couch and the wall, the small kitchenette was separated by a kitchen island. He had a flicker of hope that this meant Guillermo might return home or that perhaps he could convince him to move some place nicer than this, with more space. 

“Are you okay being here alone?” Guillermo asked as he entered the living room dressed in his typical sweater with its muted earth tones, he wore his usual glasses, and his hair was brushed back the best it could be. 

“I will be, just bored, but I’ll be fine.”

Guillermo smiled softly, “I have cable and also there’s a ton of books in my bedroom closet if you get really bored. You might not be too into the ones about vampire slaying though, but I did buy Twilight and Breaking Dawn.” 

Nandor grinned, “I thought that you hated Twilight?”

“I do, but I tried to give it another shot….I still hate it, but it’s your thing and I’m trying very hard to respect that.” He told him, Nandor could tell it was something he couldn’t understand and never would. 

Guillermo kissed him gently before going to the door, “I’ll see you this evening, okay?”

“Yes, later.”

The human idled at the door, hand on the doorknob as if he wanted to say something more. Nandor wanted to tell him that he loved him, but still some deep fear kept the words from coming forth, so he sat in silence, watched as Guillermo opened the door and slipped out into the hall closing the door behind himself. 

He let out a sigh now that he was alone, he leaned his head back against the couch. “I love you,” he said to nobody.


	9. Chapter 9

Boredom perhaps was the worst part of being alone. It was unusual to say the least for Nandor to be awake during the daytime, but when he’d attempted to return to bed, he found himself incapable of sleeping. Somehow the bed wasn’t the same without Guillermo laying next to him, the pillows and sheets still smelled of him, but they lacked the soft warmth of his body. Once he abandoned the endeavor of sleep, he decided to begin looking around his partner’s apartment, he hadn’t seen much of it when he’d arrived. There of course wasn’t much to see, Guillermo’s apartment was as sparsely decorated as his under the stair’s bedroom had been. He did his best to ignore the crucifixes that hung upon the walls of each room. When he began snooping through drawers, he found the random small vial of holy water here and there, on the floor of the small closet in the bedroom he found a brown duffel bag ripped and stained with dried blood. Inside the bag he found several wooden stakes, two of them stained with blood, he found silver crosses as well as a couple of knives, he felt a shiver of fear at the sight of the objects. Even after watching Guillermo kill a theatre filled with vampires, he couldn’t connect these things in his brain; for him they weren’t the same person. The Guillermo who he made love to last night, the one he’d known for over eleven years now who used to trail behind him like a lost puppy was certainly not the man in the trench coat who slaughtered a room full of vampires with nearly no problem. The man who owned all these weapons was not the same man that he was ridiculously madly in love with.

He closed the closet door and retreated from the bedroom and back into the living room. He glanced at the clock on the wall to see that only two hours had passed since Guillermo had left for his mother’s home. Time as it sometimes did was moving incredibly slowly, it was giving him far too much time to overthink. As he stared up at the ceiling he thought about that night in the theatre, the car ride home, and the torturous days afterwards. He had hated not seeing Guillermo, being in a house without his presence. When Guillermo had showed up to save them, he had felt shock and relief, he’d been so happy to see him again, terrified that he would be overpowered and killed, because he knew he’d blame himself for it if Guillermo had ended up killed that night. He’d feared what his ex-familiar was, a person that he’d never really known, but deep down he’d always suspected. 

It wasn’t as if Guillermo would harm him, not on purpose. He traced the scar on the palm of his hand, a holy mark to remind him of many things; of what Guillermo was, of the man that he loved more than he’d loved anybody in centuries, and the pain that came with this. Love was difficult for him, worse so when you fell in love with a mortal, and then when that mortal turned out to be a born vampire slayer then things became grossly complicated. He missed when his biggest fear was that Guillermo was just using him to become a vampire, that he didn’t and couldn’t care about him. He had at least the comforting knowledge that Guillermo cared for him, he cared deeply. Which was a good sign, he didn’t look at him with disgust or fear, he touched him and kissed him like he was a being deserving of worship. 

Knocking on the door startled him from his inner turmoil, strangely it was a welcome distraction even if this wasn’t his apartment. He got up from the couch and made his way to the door unlocking and opening it without much forethought. His hope for a pleasant distraction or a quick meal dropped when he saw the bland bald man in beige and khaki slacks standing before him, hands stuffed in the pockets of his pants, and a barely pleasant smile on his face as he stared up at the under dressed vampire.

“What are you doing here Colin Robinson?” Nandor asked, irritation seeping into his tone as he stared down at the energy vampire.

Colin smirked, “I was just wondering if you were here. Nadja and Laszlo were wondering where you ran off to last night.”

He had hoped that his friends wouldn’t notice his absence, he hoped maybe they would be relieved to not have to deal with his moping for a single night. The thought that they may know he’d spent the night and the day with Guillermo made him slightly anxious, he didn’t need them lecturing him about this again.

“Don’t worry I didn’t tell them that you’re here, I honestly wasn’t too sure myself.” Colin assured him sensing his increased discomfort.

Nandor sighed in relief relaxing the slightest bit, Colin tried to look over his shoulder and into the apartment. “Think I might be able to come in, stay for a bit?”

“Guillermo isn’t here,”

“That’s okay,”

“I’m not inviting you in.”

“That’s a bit rude, I was hoping we could chat and maybe catch up. It feels like I haven’t gotten to hang out with you in ages with you moping around about Guillermo all the time.” 

He debated closing the door in his face, but he wasn’t quite sure the vampire would leave if he did that. Worst case scenario Colin would stand in the hallway until Guillermo came back home and that was the last thing Guillermo or himself wanted.

“Say where’s the bathroom? Long bus ride here and all.” 

“Oh, it’s right this way down the hall.” Nandor responded stepping to the side and pointing towards the hall.

Colin chuckled as he stepped into the apartment.

“Shit,” Nandor muttered to himself as he closed and locked the door behind him.

“Works every time. Wow he sure does have a lot of crosses hanging up.” Colin commented as he eyed the crosses that hung above the TV.

“Well, he needs them because of the vampires after him.”

“Makes sense y’know unless he decides to pick up the family business.”

“He wouldn’t do that.” Nandor defended, he regretted accidentally inviting the vampire inside.

He was never entirely sure what Colin Robinson’s deal was other than he gained pleasure from causing neutral chaos; he never seemed to care much about the outcome, only what he could gain from the discomfort and annoyance of those around him. Nandor knew he could care less that Guillermo was a VanHelsing or that he had killed well over a hundred vampires by this point, in a weird way Guillermo was even considered a friend to Colin. 

“How do you know that he’s killed how many vampires by now? How many did he kill before then?” Colin inquired; his tone completely casual as he waited for Nandor’s response.

“A few, assassins mostly, and the Baron….Carol….He had good reasons for all of those.” Carol had been attacking Guillermo, the Baron had been sheer accident, the assassins were out to kill the lot of them. Nandor could defend and understand each of those, there were ones that he couldn’t defend though like the house of 70s vampires who seemed to be doing no harm to anyone. “You’re beginning to sound like Nadja, did you come here to make me regret my choice?” Nandor asked as he sat down on the couch.

“No, I honestly don’t care either way. I mean I think it’s great if you guys can work it out, but if you don’t then well, I get a pretty good meal out of the post breakup awkwardness from you. I would much rather you date Guillermo than you bringing some new person into the house.”

Nandor furrowed his brow as he stared up at the other man, Colin simply smiled. 

“I’m not big on change, I wasn’t too thrilled when Guillermo moved in, but he’s a good meal most days. If you brought some new person into the house then that’s just a lot to adjust to, I’d much prefer if you can get Guillermo to move back in.” 

“I doubt Nadja and Laszlo would like that.”

“They sure wouldn’t.” Colin agreed, smiling fondly at the thought of the anger his other roommates would emanate. “I guess we’ll see how things go.”

“I am hoping that once everything calms down then Guillermo can come back home, but until then I think perhaps you should leave before he comes back.” Nandor suggested as he got up from the couch and guided the other man back towards the door.

“Fine, I get it you guys need alone time. I would recommend coming back home soon though before Nadja comes looking for you.” Colin warned as he stepped back out into the hallway.

“I’ll return tonight,” 

He did miss his coffin and the familiarity of his home, their home, but it didn’t entirely feel like home without Guillermo there. 

“Cool, see ya then roomie.”

Nandor closed and locked the door, even with the door closed he was quite sure Colin was idling outside just for the sake of making him uncomfortable. 

As much as the energy vampire annoyed him, he found himself already missing his company. He was not a man who enjoyed being alone, he could of course be alone, and he had spent quite some time alone after he’d been turned into a vampire, but he didn’t enjoy it. He liked to be around others whether they be humans, vampires, or other types of monsters. Loneliness brought on boredom, doubt, and eventual insanity; none of which were things he was fond of. 

After the third hour of being alone he began going through the small collection of books Guillermo had. He stretched out on the bed and began flipping through them, despite his better judgement he began reading through the books about slayers, about the VanHelsing bloodline. As it turned out there were several types of born slayers, the VanHelsing line being the most well known of them. He remembered in the early days of being a vampire hearing about a family of slayers, but he’d never taken it quite seriously. He knew that humans in general tended to harbor a hate for vampires, he was accustomed to being chased out of villages and countries by angry humans, being stabbed, shot, and tortured by them. The VanHelsing line, humans who were genetically designed to hunt and kill vampires though was something that felt impossible to believe in. Yet he knew one, was romantically involved with one. 

He knew in some way he was a traitor to his own kind. He was a vampire who believed in the rules and laws of their kind, laws put in place to keep harmony. He thought back to Carol’s death; his first instinct should have been to kill Guillermo or to turn him over to somebody, but instead his immediate reaction was to calm him and to protect him. There was something fundamentally wrong with him to be so devoted to a VanHelsing. Guillermo wasn’t like the people in these books though; he wasn’t like his ancestors who devoted their very existences to slaughtering monsters, Guillermo spent so much of his life wanting to see monsters as people. He couldn’t imagine the man he loved turning into a fulltime monster hunter, but then again, he’d never imagined Guillermo being a vampire killer at all. 

As he read through the books, he knew there was much he still needed to think about and much they needed to discuss, but the thought of those impending conversations terrified him. More than anything he just wanted held and told that it was all a ridiculous nightmare.


End file.
